In this article, the great Nate Silver alleges that, while political gerrymandering in the US is ridiculous enough, in the UK, the gerrymandering system works primarily against the Conservatives (whereas in the US, each state controls its districts, thereby allowing partisan states' representation in Congress to simply be more partisan).

I wonder if any of our British contributors would care to defend (or attack, for that matter) this system.

We hear constant criticism about the US electoral college system, which produced an anomalous result only once in recent history; and a very small anomalous result at that. The British system seems to be significantly worse.

Originally posted by sh76http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/03/us-and-uk-redistricting-processes.html

In this article, the great Nate Silver alleges that, while political gerrymandering in the US is ridiculous enough, in the UK, the gerrymandering system works primarily against the Conservatives (whereas in the US, each state controls its districts, thereby allowing partisan states ...[text shortened]... and a very small anomalous result at that. The British system seems to be significantly worse.

Originally posted by sh76The British system seems to be significantly worse.

I reckon you won't find too many Britons who support - or who are very enthusiastic about - their country's first past the winning post system. As for gerrymandering, I don't think the U.K. has any bizarrely shaped constituencies like there are so many of in the U.S. but I am happy to be set straight on this.